Living in Guatemala Time - Short Stories and Images

Take a deep breath, relax, and join us in Guatemala time

We have been preoccupied with things other than keeping the blog current. Sorry for the delay. It has been amazing living in Guatemala time.

Since our last posting we have had numerous adventures exploring “the Rio”, the surrounding areas of Guatemala, and, most recently, a bit of Belize. We will take a little different approach to catching up. Rather than present a chronological travel log, we present a couple of short stories and images that we hope you will find entertaining.

Life on the hard- Fixing your boat in exotic places

Among often repeated and quite worn adages is “cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places”.

Frontereas/Rio Dulce is located 20+ miles from the mouth of the river which makes it one of the best hurricane holes in all of the Caribbean. Another attraction to Rio Dulce for boaters is the entire community of marinas, shops, and competent workers to tackle almost any project at very reasonable rates. We had plans for several boat projects and we were eager to tackle them here in the Rio.

We woke up to full and double rainbows two days in a row while waiting to be hauled out

After several days waiting, we were hauled out by tractor and trailer. 
Yes, one of the marina dock hands has to go into the water to block the boat on the trailer.

Once the boat was secure, we got to take a ride through the yard on our boat. 
FUN!

Another worn saying is “cruising is more about intentions rather than schedules”. You put those two things together and you can guess where we are going with this.

When you haul a boat out of the water and put it on stands in a boat yard either for storage, or for projects, the boat is said to be “on the hard”. We don’t know the etymology of this but we can guess that a boat on land is “on the hard” because land is, well, not soft. But there must be other explanations.

Our view aboard Leilani on our ride through the yard.

Life on a boat in a boat yard is hard for a number of reasons. We know most all of the reasons because we had been living “on the hard” for almost three months! Endless inconveniences of nearly all of life’s activities abound “on the hard”.

Here are just a few of the hard things:

-You are living on a heat reflective concrete pad.  It is really, really hot for several hours mid-day.

-You cannot keep the dust from sanding bottom paint and fiberglass off your boat.    

-You have to listen to noisy sanders, drills and other tools that power up early each morning and go all day.

-You have to climb a ladder on and off the boat while taking great care not to fall off. (We have assisted several cruisers with concussions, broken ribs, fingers, and toes).

-You do not have potable water. You lug multiple 6-gallon jugs of drinking water up the ladder to pour into your water tanks.

-You have to take cold water showers.  The water heater in the community shower was broken for about three months.  

-You have to set up a bucket to avoid climbing the ladder and walking to the toilet at night.

-You have to pee in that bucket on the boat.

-You have to empty that bucket.

-You have to do dishes at a sink in the yard – at the opposite side of the yard.

-You have to accept the chaos tools, parts and clutter from all of your projects still in progress.

-You have to carry bags of laundry overland and then via the dinghy to a laundry service.

Collection of flip flops at the ladder means work is being done!

A glimpse of the chaos and clutter from life "on the hard"

We were not actually working every day on boat projects over these last months. While we waited on boat parts ordered the first day “on the hard”, we tackled some less urgent projects. Cosmetic varnishing and sewing projects came to the top of our “to do list” as the critical replacement of the propeller shaft cutlass bearings and seals moved to the bottom of the list. Some days after some particularly overheated labor we would wander to the pool and then celebrate any minor or major accomplishment with a beer at the boat. It was not always a hard day “on the hard”. Some days this is true- “Even a bad day on the hard, can be better than a good day at work.”

Tracy working on salon window shades.

Bud working on a nap

Brightening up Leilani during the holidays

Although we did have a schedule for our time in Guatemala, even the most poorly defined schedule was eventually thrown out as we waited for essential boat parts. We learned that our parts had been delivered in Guatemala City in October but were to remain in customs for “analysis”. We never learned what “analysis” meant. Despite the best efforts of our competent and gracious shipping agent, we all grew weary of the endless delays and excuses that spanned nearly 2 ½ months. The parts were finally released the Friday before Christmas! The invoice from the customs office added “insult to injury” by adding the charge for “storage” of the parts at the warehouse!

Long wait, small package

Leilani looking good and ready to go back in the water

We were creative in reducing some of our frustration by escaping on several excursions to explore Guatemala.  

Antigua, Kite Festival, Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, Halloween

We joined a group of cruising characters on a road trip to share the festivities surrounding Day of the Dead, All Saints Day and Halloween in and around the gem of a town, Antigua. We were told the festivities were not to be missed, and we were not disappointed. Admittedly, the combination of mixed religious festivities encompassing pagan, Catholic, and Maya rituals were at times entertaining, confusing and surreal.

Antigua

The picturesque town of Antigua is located about a 1 ½ hours west of Guatemala City, in a valley encircled by volcanoes. The rooftop view of the volcanos from our hotel was pretty spectacular.

Rooftop view of Agua Volcano from our hotel in Antigua

Fuego Volcano (in the distance) and Acatenango Volcano surrounding Antigua. 
Fuego is erupting in this view

Antigua was the third capital of Guatemala and remained so for about two hundred years. A series of earthquakes eventually destroyed much of the city after which the capital was moved to its current location in Guatemala City. Antigua is known for its well-preserved Spanish-Baroque influenced architecture and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Walking down the narrow cobblestone streets lined with colorful buildings and elaborately decorated churches, it feels like you could be walking the streets of a small town in Spain.

Santa Catalina Arch connects a convent with a school

Church of La Merced was destroyed twice by earthquakes

Colorful market filled with arts, crafts, and souvenirs

Walking dead

Halloween night was a spectacle with throngs of people in the streets – it was a feast of people watching. Bud did experience some trickery as he was sharing his “treat”- a sip of rum with one of the cruising buddies at the hotel. Standing beside the table above the street where they could watch over the throngs of walking dead, they had the bottle of rum sitting between them. After adding a touch more rum to their glasses they were distracted for a couple of minutes as they watched the ghouls and dead lumber by. Somehow the entire bottle of rum was “spirited” away. Was it that “skeleton girl”? (See the picture).

Cruising friend, Rob, entertained locals with his horse head mask (under his arms). 
Same site as the spiriting away of the bottle of rum.  By the 'skeleton girl'?

Fascinating costume - Skeleton girl.

Go fly a kite

An event surrounding All Saints Day and the Day of the Dead that attracts visitors from all over the world is the giant kite festival (Festival de Barriletes Gigantes), which takes place in two towns near Antigua -Santiago Sacatepequez and Sumpango.

Do you see Bud? 
Catch up with him before you lose him among the thousands at the kite festival in Santiago

Most of the activities with the kites take place IN THE CEMETERIES and among the families that gather in the traditional sharing time at the graves of their deceased loved ones (cleaning, decorating with flowers, and having picnics). Although walking among and on graves may be thought to be disrespectful of the dead among some people, on this occasion, the mood of this festival was not solemn but joyful and upbeat. The throngs of visitors came to see the spectacle of the kites in which teams of young people competed to erect impossibly large “gigantes” kites (some over 60 feet across) constructed of bamboo poles lashed together and covered with colorful paper and fabric. Other teams competed in actually flying the smaller, but still impressive kites.  

Families sharing time among the graves and tombs

Colorful flowers and pine needles were commonly left on graves

Throngs of visitors admire the giant kites 

Giant kites from local villages in competition

One of the more colorful and intricate designs

Close up of the above kite

This kite memorializes those that were lost in the quest
to travel to the US and a different life

We have heard mixed stories about the meaning of the kites but we understand that among various sects, the kites are flown to communicate with “the beyond”. Among the variations is that the flying of kites grew out of the belief that spirits come on All Saints Day to bother the residents. What started as simply taking large pieces of paper to fly in the wind and make noise to scare away the spirits, became the tradition of flying kites as an efficient means of dispersing spirits. Today, these vibrant colored and variously themed kites are flown to honor the dead.  

Kites in all directions flown from a cemetery

Everyone gets involved with the wind, even with whirlygigs

Teams compete in flying mid-size kites 

Mid-size kites (about 20 feet across) in competition - higher and longer wins

Of incense, pomp and circumstance

Returning to Antigua following the kite festival, we observed people gathering in front of the cathedral of Saint James on the main square. Soon a procession of marchers in single file dressed in brown and purple robes appeared, and the sky filled with dense clouds of fragrant incense.  By the time we returned to the hotel, we heard the haunting melody of the dirge music echo in the narrow streets.  Eventually the procession entered the street in front of our hotel, and continued through the streets of Antigua late into the evening. The procession was trailed by a giant, over 40-foot-long sarcophagus, decorated with statues of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Angel Gabriel carried through the street by over 50 paw bearers keeping in slow march and with a low chant. The float, festooned with lights powered by a generator pulled behind the procession, honors the spirits of ancestors- those who suffered and died, and those who carry great burdens. All of us were quite stunned by the spectacle and none of us could articulate what we thought of it all. We did agree that travel occasionally shows us something completely unexpected and extraordinary - And isn’t that one of the reasons we travel?

Incense clouds fill the square adjacent to the cathedral

Pall bearers (50+) carry this immense sarcophagus through the narrow cobblestone streets of Antigua

Sharing the Rio With Family - Jena and Brayden

Bud’s niece Jena, and her boyfriend, Brayden, joined us for a very full week of fun exploring the Rio. Although rainy weather confined us to the boat for the first couple of days, we made up for it with a couple of trips and gatherings with cruising friends. We took a fast “lancha” trip 20+ miles down the river through the stunning canyon at the mouth of the Rio. We caught up with “Polo”, our Garifuna friend from our first arrival in Livingston, to get a tour of his neighborhood. Polo entertained us with his views on politics and life in Guatemala. He also explained how his friend Jerry Garcia (from the Grateful Dead) contributed to the community. Polo then introduced us to an amazing lunch of “Tapado”, a seafood soup, containing crab, shrimp and fish.  

Tracy, Jena, and Brayden marvel at their huge bowls of tapado

Made with love and time - add coconut, curry, plantains, shrimp, crab, and mangrove snapper

We ate it all - mostly

Fast lancha back up river from Livingston through the famed cliffs of the lower Rio

We took another trip to Tenamit Maya, an EcoAdventure Park on the Rio, which featured an amazing zip line adventure in the jungle, followed by kayaking down the Tameja River, an old Maya commerce route, and a late afternoon lunch.  As with most places on the Rio Dulce, Tenamit Maya is most easily accessed by boat. A lancha picked us up and delivered us to their property down river, with extensive farmland butting up to a dense canopy at the foothills of the mountain, Cerro San Gil.  It was a thrilling day, with lots of climbing, zipping, navigating hanging bridges, and paddling.  With big smiles and sore muscles, we were whisked by lancha at sunset back to our marina. It was a perfect way to end the day.

Tony, Jena, Brayden, Robyn, Tracy, and Bud all geared up for a day of zip lining

Jena gets ready for one of the 13 zip lines 

Bud screaming here like a little girl

Bud navigating through the canopy on the obstacle course

Tracy makes it look easy high in the canopy

The last leg of the journey - kayak trek down the Tameja River to our late lunch

NEXT TIME: Come back again to read about more of our explorations in and around Guatemala, including travel to Belize, to spectacular Maya ruins, cool river trips, caves, and more.      

On The Rio – A few degrees from our normal

Welcome to the Rio Dulce. 
Murals add color to El Relleno, the community on the other side of the bridge and Fronteras.

“Hey, its Guatemala out there!”

Bud repeats this several times a week as a morning greeting to Tracy. He says it partly for his twisted comedy, but also, in repeating the words, he remind us to more fully appreciate this fascinating place. We want to take it all in.

We do marvel at our achievement in getting here by our own wits. We are immensely thrilled about that. Our travels along the US east coast, down the Intracoastal Waterway, to the Florida Keys and more, were all important to us, but over time we began to view our travels by boat as cruising with training wheels. We expected more but were not sure whether that was realistic.  

It wasn’t until we arrived in Guatemala, which we embraced as a destination rather than just another roadside attraction, that we realized that our cruising life had changed.  

Guatemala is remarkable not merely because of the obvious differences, but oddly, because of the similarities. Not everything here is entirely foreign. We have seen immense billowy clouds and blue skies, colorful birds, rivers, lakes, lush tropical greenery, and of course, humans, always, interesting people in other places. It is just that the colors, sounds, smells, scenery, critters and people of Guatemala show us things that are tweaked just a few degrees from our “normal”- And that has made it all so enchanting.  

We don’t ever recall describing a place as enchanting. We hope we can capture in the following pictures and words why we call Rio Dulce a land of enchantment.     

Up the Rio

Rio Dulce or Sweet River, is indeed a sweet place. The river and the surrounding region offers experiences unlike any other in the Caribbean.

There was so much to capture with the scenery and people going up the Rio.
 Tracy couldn't put her camera down.

Enchanting tropical scenery along the Rio.

Picturesque houses tucked into the greenery line the edge of the Rio.

Looking for a a retirement home?

Our departure from the chaos of Livingston felt like we were making a daring escape up the Rio. We were rewarded almost immediately as we turned a bend in the river to meet the spectacular 300 foot towering walls of the Rio Dulce canyon, drenched in green, and more green, dense tropical vegetation of bromeliads, orchids, vines and flowering trees. It is obvious why Hollywood chose this river for filming the original Tarzan movies.

The first of two hairpin bends in the Rio Dulce canyon.

Lush dense green jungle as we come up the Rio Dulce.

The canyon walls soared 300 feet above us.

Scattered along the riverbank we watched locals deftly paddle impossibly tiny dug-out wooden canoes (“cayucos”). Some cayucos were almost completely hidden in the vegetation as they hugged the riverbank to stay out of the main river current. We marveled at how easily they set their fish traps, tossed their hand lines or cast nets, all from these little boats.

Fishing along the riverbank in cayucos.

   

Casting nets by cayuco is as much of a skill as it is art. 

Watch this short video of the cast.

Transport of building materials by cayuco.

Rush hour on the Rio at sunset.

We spent one night anchored in a small bay along the river before arriving in Fronteras/Rio Dulce. It served as our introduction to Guatemala and we knew immediately that we had arrived in a very special place.

The dude (still with his sailor whiskers) enjoying a beer at anchor
in Bahia Buena Vista.

Warm pan de coco - coconut bread - delivered by cayuco to our boat at anchor.

A cayuco returning home after a long day on the Rio.

Sunset overlooking El Golfete.

Overlooking the Mico Mountains as we head up the last ten miles up the Rio. 

Leilani snuggled in at the "T" dock at Mar Marine, in Shell Bay, just off the Rio Dulce.

Finding Fronteras

While no one would say Rio Dulce and Venice have a lot in common, they do share the dependence on boats as the primary means of transportation. If Venice is at one end of the spectrum with romantic gondolas slowly paddled through winding canals, and elegant architecture, Fronteras is at the other end of the spectrum. It lives up to its name- the Frontier. Fronteras has utilitarian “lanchas” or pangas equipped with outboards speeding by with abandon, and palm frond-covered ramshackle huts, and tin roofed restaurants and markets lining the water edge.

Lanchas ready for tourists to take them up and down the Rio Dulce.

We take our dinghy to Bruno’s Marina/Restaurant dock for convenient access to town. We then walk up to the street to find Fronteras, the bustling, crowded, noisy, and aromatic assault on the senses. Fronteras can at times be a bit overwhelming, but perpetually interesting.

Convenient parking at Bruno's - shared with dinghys.

Fronteras is a transportation hub for the region, with a lone two-lane road running through town. There is not a single traffic signal town, but there are uniformed “officers” that direct traffic to some sort of order. The road is overloaded, packed with bicycles, cars, scooters, motorcycles, Tuc-Tucs, vans, buses, cattle trucks, heavily-laden transports and, of course, pedestrians dodging traffic. The pedestrians are a mix of workers and shoppers moving among the stalls, stands and stores that border the road by mere inches.

As you walk along the road, the same road you share with those big trucks and other traffic, you have to watch your back, and your front for vehicle and people traffic, as well as, for avoiding collisions with the tortilla-making-girls, the stacks of fresh empanadas, the prickly pineapples, the shaved ice guy, the fried chicken carts, and so much more. You also have to watch your feet as you weave along the uneven pavement to try to avoid wrenching an ankle.

Welcome to Fronteras.

Shaved ice carts, pedestrians, and motorcycles all share this two lane road through town.

As well as buses...

And bikes and tuc-tucs.

Not only do you have to worry about traffic walking through town,
you need to be careful not to twist an ankle on the uneven pavement.

The major intersection in the middle of town.

Umbrellas and shops line the edge of the two lane road through town.

Cattle feed for a local finca.

Brahma cattle on vacation seeing the sights as they pass through Fronteras. 

In our first visits along one section of the road we were confused by rapid fire shouting which sounded like hawkers calling patrons to come see the bearded lady at the carnival. Later our ears adjusted to the Spanish and we realized the “hawker” was actually calling passengers for transport in the microbuses or colectivos. “Morales, Morales, Morales” alerted people that this colectivo was leaving for the town of Morales. Later, we would hear other destinations, such as Flores and Paraiso.

Colors seem to be more vibrant here in Guatemala, certainly they are more vibrant than you would see in most any US city. Among the brilliant and varied colors are those found at fruits and vegetable stands. We have found a remarkable bounty of incredibly cheap and very tasty vegetables and fruits. Tuesdays and Saturdays are the best for shopping for the freshest. Since there is no refrigeration, it doesn’t take long for the sweet aromas to change to unpleasant in the tropical heat.

Drive-up convenience at one of the fruit and vegetable stands. 

Colorful fruits and vegetables invite you in.

Fresh lobster brought up the river from Belize.  We bought two.

Local fishermen selling their catch at the fish market.

Other vibrant colors come from many people, particularly the indigenous people, the Maya. Women, in particular, dress neatly in similar outfits of long skirts (cortes) and blouses (huipils), but individualize with colors and adornments.

Other locals in town are also well-dressed in stark contrast to many of us living on boats and the numerous backpacking tourists who often tend to be pretty shabbily dressed. Many look like they are in urgent need of a shower, and in fact, many are.  

Lunch made fresh daily - fried mojarra, chili rellenos,
stewed pork and chicken, rice, salsa, and more.

One of our favorite taco stands in town. 
They also sell stuffed flour tortillas, cooking off to the side.

Remarkable.  Even flowers are for sale here.

A colorful side to Fronteras, just growing on the side of the bridge. 
Don't know this flower yet.

Or this one.  Anyone know what kind of flower this is?

There are many layers here in Guatemala, many are made more obscure by the differences in language and culture. With spending more time here we know many of these interesting layers will be revealed. We appreciate the smiles of the locals who tolerate our halting attempts to communicate or negotiate a purchase of a melon, tomato, or chicken. We forget our embarrassment as we see the locals covering their smirks with their hands and as they mummer their imitation of our butchering of their language to one another. We have found the locals to be invariably among the most pleasant, gracious and patient people we have met.  

Wood worker carves local teak just inches from the hustle and bustle of the highway.

NEXT TIME: Come back for another installment of life on the Rio as we share our adventures away from Fronteras and the marinas. We venture in colectivos on the road to explore waterfalls, the old Spanish fort, local crafts people, maybe a zip line or two and more.